Chapter 1

Mario is Missing

Mario sat the paintbrush down and stepped back. It had been seven months since the Zox attacked, and they had finally rebuilt Peach's castle.

"Oh, it's lovely! Thank you Mario, and you too, Luigi, for helping my Toads rebuild the castle."

"No problem!" Luigi said.

"We're happy to help. Well, how about that pasta? I'm starved!" As they started walking back toward the castle, the sky suddenly turned dark.

"No." Mario said to himself. He looked around for a portal, but didn't see any. Suddenly, the ground they stood on began to crack and sink. One of the trees sank down and disappeared, and he could see that the portal had opened below them. They started running away, but the ground sank, and they fell in.

Mario didn't see anything he could do, so he pulled out the radio Zero gave him. Everyone had kept the radios as a memento of their adventures together.

It was early morning in Hyrule, and the sun was just rising. As Link walked down the steps from Kakariko, he heard Mario's voice coming from his radio.

"Help...Zox...!" Mario's voice was gargled with static, and he was only able to hear two words.

"Mario, what's going? Mario? Come in Mario! Mario? Mario? Mario! Answer me! Mario!" There was no reply but static.

As Sonic started to come to, his vision was blurry. He focused his eyes, and could see that he was in a small, metal room, strapped down to a chair, and a bright light above him made him squint his eyes. The only entrance to the room was a door to his right. Sonic tried to get out, but the bands held him down. Sonic tried to remember what he was doing before he ended up here, but then the door slid open, and a huge Zox stepped in.

"So, you're the one known as Sonic? You certainly are a fast one. It took a lot of effort to capture you."

"Who are you? And where am I?" Sonic asked. A smirk then came over the Zox's face.

"Heh, very well then. I am War Master Karlnak, and you are on the mother ship."

"War Master? So you're the one who's been blasting my home to bits!" Sonic yelled out in anger. He struggled to get out and smack him in the face, but it was futile.

"Yes, and once I rid this planet of the ones who stand in my way, we can claim this planet our own. Now tell me, Sonic, where are the Freedom Fighters?"

"Like I'd ever tell you!" Karlnak then came right up to Sonic's face and looked him straight in the eye.

"Tell me, and I just might let you live!"

"Never!" Just then, a siren went off outside the room. Karlnak stepped back and took out a communicator.

"What's going on?" Karlnak asked in his angry tone.

"A flying craft is attacking, sir!" As if on queue, the wall was blasted open from gun fire, and a blue plane flew inside. Karlnak was knocked down from the blast and laid on the floor.

"Sonic!"

"Tails! Get me outta here!" Tails quickly jumped down from the plane with a tool in hand. He came up to Sonic and used a laser cutter to cut him out. Karlnak got back up as Sonic and Tails hoped back in the plane.

"You wretched little…!" Before he could finish, Tails turned the plane around and flew back out. As the Tornado flew out of the Zox mother ship, lasers were being fired at them, but they quickly escaped.

Sonic, everything is ready to go!" Tails said.

"Fine, let's hurry then." Sonic didn't like the idea of leaving the planet, but they had already tried to stop the Zox. If they didn't escape, they would probably all be dead. They had been fighting against for quite some time now, but their situation had grown quite grim.

After a few minutes, they had reached Angel Island. The island was sitting in the ocean next to a sea cliff so that the people who would come with them could walk on. Tails landed the Tornado on the island next to the ruins that held the Master and Chaos emeralds. All the Chaos emeralds had been gathered and put in place with the Master emerald, and a machine had been built in place.

Tails called it a dimensional drive. It was built around the Master emerald in the center of the ruins, and fed off of the power combined with the Chaos emeralds. Four rods in the center stretched out towards the sky, which would open a portal.

Sonic walked up to the machine where Dr. Robotnick was kneeling down, tweaking the Dimensional Drive.

"I hope you keep your promise, Eggman." Sonic warned.

"I promise, I won't cause any trouble to you or your friends. As much as it pains me to be working with you, it's either that or die at the hands of the Zox." Robotnick said as he screwed down a bolt. He then put his tool down and stood up. "There, it's finished." He then pressed a button, and the emeralds began to glow. Electricity began flowing into the machine as it built up power.

"All right, it's working! Thanks Eggman, I couldn't have finished it without your help!" Tails said excitedly.

"Whatever." Eggman said coldly. The thought of helping his enemies was too much.

"Knuckles, take us up!" Tails shouted. Knuckles was sitting in a meditative position on top of the Master emerald. Knuckles focused his mind to instruct the emerald to take the island up.

"Hey wait, where's Sally?" Sonic looked around, but didn't see her anywhere.

"What? I thought she was coming?"

"Oh no, Sally!" Sonic was beginning to panic, and began running all over the island to search it from head to toe. After a few seconds, though, he found that she was no where on it. He then rushed towards the edge of the island.

"Why, Sally? Why wouldn't you listen to me?" Sonic thought to himself. "I know we argued whether leaving was good or not, but surely you can't think that we have a chance by staying?" Sonic came to the edge of Angel Island, but stopped suddenly. The island was already a few miles above ground.

"Sally!" Sonic shouted to the ground. She was nowhere to be seen. Sonic was about to jump off, but a hand grabbed his shoulder. He looked around to see Tails.

"Don't Sonic, it's too late!"

"But we can't leave her behind!" Bolts of energy came out from the center of the island and up into the sky. The bolts met at a single point, and as they pulled apart, it tore open a hole in the dimensions. A swirling black vortex grew, and would continue growing until it was big enough to engulf the entire island. They were now in the upper layer of the atmosphere, and oxygen was getting low as they were getting closer to outer space.

Sonic looked down back at the planet, and to his horror, several CDs had gathered around the planet, and began charging their laser cannons all at once. As they fired, large explosions erupted all around Mobius.

"No!" Sonic reached out his hand towards the planet, but there was nothing he could do. Amy then ran up to Sonic holding him, crying. She then looked up to him with tears in her eyes, and spoke in a voice not of her own.

"Help...Zox...!"

Sonic woke up with a shock from his dream, and fell right off the roof of Tails's workshop. Sonic stood up from the ground, rubbing his aching head.

"I gotta stop sleeping on high places." Sonic said aloud. He then looked up at the roof, pondering in his mind.

"I don't understand; we defeated Karlnak seven months ago, I've avenged Mobius, and yet I still have this dream. Wait, it was different this time. Why did Amy say Help…Zox…!, and why did she sound like Mario speaking through a static filled radio?" His train of thought was broken as he then heard Link's voice.

"Mario, what's going? Mario? Come in Mario! Mario? Mario? Mario! Answer me! Mario!" Sonic looked inside the window of the workshop, and saw that it was coming from his radio inside. He quickly went in and grabbed it.

"Link, is that you? What's going on?"

"Sonic! You didn't hear? Mario said something about the Zox, and now he's gone!" Link shouted back through the radio.

With Mario's last plead for help, everyone began gathering at the Mushroom Kingdom to see what happened; however, they didn't know that someone else was coming.

"Wow, is that Nintendo? It's huge!" Marina said. She was looking at the planet Nintendo through the window of their rocket home.

"Yep. It's one of the largest planets in known existence." Marina's creator said. "With its large size and wide diversity of terrain, many different organisms have evolved from it. Koopas, Humans, Hylians, just to name a few."

"I've always heard about it, but I've never seen it with my own eyes. I bet Mario and the others will be surprised to see us."

"If they remember us."

"Sure they will! We saved their lives after all!"

With the aid of Zelda, Link was instantly transported to Peach's castle. The sun was shining on a clear day, but that didn't make things seem any better. As he turned around, he saw a huge hole in the ground. It looked as if the ground had just sunk down, but the floor of the hole was perfectly flat.

"Is this what happened to you, Mario?" Link thought aloud, worried for Mario's safety. Several Toads were at the site securing the area, and one of them heard Link.

"I'm afraid so. One minute our princess is outside with the Mario brothers, the next they fall into a dimensional portal. Oh, what has happened to them?" Toad was very worried.

"A dimensional portal?" Link gasped. "That means the Zox must have taken him somewhere! But where? And why?" Link looked around as if trying to find some sort of clue, but then he heard something head towards them with great speed. Across the grassy field, he saw a blue blur heading straight towards him. It then tried slowing down by digging its feet in the ground. Sonic kicked up dirt and scarred the ground as he skidded to a stop.

"I came as fast as I could, so what happened?" Link looked at Sonic, but then turned his attention to the hole. Sonic looked, and beheld the gaping hole.

On the outskirts of Viridian city, a large wherehouse was constructed. What was inside was kept generally a secret, yet there were many people who went in and out of it. There were only two entrances, one being a large gate, so large that it made a commercial jet look small. The other was a small door next to the gate for people to enter, which was always protected by two security guards.

Ash was running towards the wherehouse as fast as he could. He ran up to the door, but the security man quickly stopped him.

"Woah kid, slow down. What do you think you're doing here, huh? This place is off limits."

"What? It's me, Ash! Come on, let me in!"

"No one without identification may enter."

"Identification? But you know me!"

"Sorry kid." Frustrated, Ash fumbled through his pockets and pulled out a I.D. card. The man then smiled and said,

"Ah yes, Ash Ketchum. You're good to go." The two then opened the door and stepped aside.

"Do you guys keep having to do this to me?"

"Come on Ash, you know it's the rules. No one can enter without I.D."

"Fine." Ash stepped inside and entered a small room with another door ahead and another security guard behind a window to his left. As they closed the door behind him and Ash showed the man his card, the door in front opened up. There was a lot of security placed on this building, but it was reasonable considering it held Nintendo's protector.

Entering the main area of the building, he saw the Nintendo 64. It was being held inside this wherehouse so it could be tested on. When they first found the 64, it was a mystery to them. It was created by an unknown species long ago, and with such foreign technology, no one knew how it worked.

After the war, different specialists from across the planet and even others from across the galaxy came to study the ship. Taking small pieces of the ship apart here and there and looking into the systems, they began to understand more on how it worked, and even more, learn how to adapt some of the technology to their own.

"Professor Oak? Oak!" Ash yelled, trying to raise his voice above the noise of the machinery.

"Ash? What are you doing here?"

"Didn't you here? Mario's been kidnapped by the Zox!" Oak's face then looked quite sadden.

"Oh yes, that. I did hear about it, and that's why we're working hard right now to put the 64 back together. If the Zox have returned then we're going to need to use it again."

"Professor, I came to tell you that I'm going to go to the Mushroom Kingdom. I want to help get Mario back!"

"Are you sure? Even if you have to leave the planet? You know that the Pokeball transfer only works if you're on Nintendo."

"I don't care! Mario's my friend and I'll do anything!" Professor Oak then smiled.

"I knew you would say that. Here Ash, take this." Oak took a Pokeball out of his pocket and handed it to him. "Just in case something happens and you need to use more Pokemon, you can use that."

"But you said it only works if I'm on Nintendo."

"Not anymore. We've gained a much better understanding of how the dimensional drive works, and I've installed one to the Pokeball transfer unit. With a boosted signal on the Pokeball, you can now use any of your Pokemon with it anywhere, whether you're on a distant planet or another dimension."

"Thanks professor!"

"Oh, come with me. I can use the transfer unit to get you to Mushroom kingdom in a snap."

Link, Sonic, and Zero discussed with each other with what to do. If they were to rescue Mario, they would have to find him, but he could be in any space, in any dimension.

"Can we be positive it was the Zox?" Zero asked.

"Who else would want to get Mario that has a dimensional drive?" Suddenly, the sky darkened, and a small portal facing them opened up, and Ash walked out.

"Ash?" Link was shocked that Ash just walked out of a portal.

"Wow, that was cool! Oh hey, did you guys know that they figured out how the dimensional drive on the 64 works?"

"Oh, so that's how you got here?" Sonic asked.

"Yep."

"Well, people seem to just keep popping up here." Zero said as he looked towards the sky. The others looked at what he was looking at, and saw a house on rockets coming down from the sky. It came down and landed right in front of castle. The door on the house opened and a green-haired woman stepped out.

"Wow, so that's Mushroom Kingdom's castle!" Marina said. Professor Theo then stumbled out of the door and fell flat on his face. "Huh? You okay professor?" Marina then helped him stand. As he stood, he appeared to put much effort into just standing.

"Man, you're lucky you kept all your strength when you turned human; Nintendo's gravity is strong!"

"Oh yeah, that's right. This is a larger planet, so the gravity is also much stronger. I hardly noticed it though." Marina then looked ahead and saw Link, Sonic, and Ash.

"Hey, guys! Surprised to see me?" Marina went over to see them, letting go of the professor, who then fell flat into the ground again.

"What? Hey, aren't you that girl who helped us in space? Marina?" Link searched his memory for who this person was. "What are you doing here?"

"Well, I thought I'd come see what this place is like!" Professor Theo then mumbled something in the ground.

"Heavy."

"Well, I'm afraid you've come at a bad time; Mario's been kidnapped."

"What? Kidnapped? By who?" Marina was shocked that something like this could happen.

"We believe it was the Zox."

"I thought you destroyed them?"

"So did we."

"We defeated the War Master, but there are still Zox out there." Sonic added.

"So what are you going to do?"

"We're not sure." Link then looked to the sky. "Where are you Mario?"

Things were dark and blurry, but as Mario's vision came into focus, he saw that he was in a small cell with Peach and Luigi. The cell was made of metal, and an energy barrier seemed to be what held them in. Beyond the transparent, fuzzy blue barrier was a Zox soldier standing guard. There were other cells, one on his right and another to the left, but there was no one in them. There was a door that led to the room, but that was closed.

"Mario, are you okay?"

"Eh, Peach? What happened?"

"When we came out of the portal, we fell right in here, and you fell on your head. You've been out for about five minutes."

"So that's why my head is pounding. What did I miss?"

"Nothing. That guard doesn't say a thing." Luigi said. Mario slowly sat up, and then the door to the room opened. Out from the dark hallway, a Zox causally walked in, and the door quickly closed behind. Unlike the other Zox, he was not as muscular. He was just as tall, but his body mass and muscle size were about half as the soldiers. He walked up to barrier of the cell, and looked right at Mario.

"So, you're the one who defeated the mighty Karlnak? Heh heh, I should thank you. If it were not for you, I would not have been promoted to War Master." Mario stood up and looked at the Zox. He was smiling, something quite different from Karlnak. His face seemed much more gentle, but Mario could sense that he was still just as evil.

"How did you know it was me who defeated Karlnak?"

"Heh, that fool Karlank recorded the whole battle. When the mother ship came spewing out of the dimensional portal in pieces, we managed to salvage the recording. Karlnak was considered the greatest warrior among the Zox, but now he rests in shame for such a humiliating defeat." Mario was a little surprised that this Zox cared so little for Karlnak.

"You seem surprised. Do I strike you as odd?"

"You could say that." Mario said, unsure of what to think of him.

"It's understandable. You've only seen the military side of the Zox. Not all of us are brutal monsters anxious to take out another race."

"But Sonic told me that…."

"That we are an evil race that only seeks power? That's what many think of us. You see, we have a society just like others. We have families. We have children that go to school, and others who have decent jobs. You see, the thing is, our race reproduces at a much quicker pace than others, and so it becomes necessary for us to find new homes. When necessary, we sometimes need to, 'evict', the current race inhabiting the land for us to live there."

"You need more land so you conquer other planets for yourself? Doesn't sound too much different."

"Well, when you say it like that."

"So does your whole race agree on this method then?"

"Oh, well, sure, there are some who disagree, but they don't have much choice in the matter." The War Master seemed to take it so lightly that it seemed like it was more of an issue than he made it sound.

"So then War Master, why…?" Peach asked.

"Please, call me Sandfire."

"Sandfire?" The name seemed odd to her, and questioned it aloud.

"Yes, in the cool nights of the desert on my home planet, the sand rapidly cools, creating a haze that looks like fire."

"So then, why have you captured us instead of killing us?"

"Oh, don't worry, I'm not going to kill you. Not yet, anyways. Unlike Karlnak, I believe that there is much more to winning battles than sheer force. There are much more, cunning ways." Mario was getting a better image of Sandfire. He may appear gentle, but there was a slyness to his words.

"Cunning ways?" Luigi asked.

"Yes. Your dimension has created quite an uproar among the Zox. No one has actually destroyed the mother ship before. Now that I am the War Master, I can redeem the honor of the empire. With my tactics, I will defeat the enemy that has opposed our power. Karlnak made it obvious that this Nintendo 64 is too powerful to fight head on, so instead, it needs to be defeated from the inside-out." Sandfire then snapped his fingers, and the door slid open.

A short, frail-looking man walked in. He was only a few inches taller than Mario, and he appeared to have malnutrition. His skin was a gray color, and his hair was rather thin. Most curious was that his arms were quite long, going all the way down to his knees. The whole time, he looked at the floor and rubbed his right forearm.

Sandfire pressed a button on Mario's cell, and the barrier disappeared. The man then walked in, still looking at the floor. The barrier then went back up, keeping him inside with Mario and the others.

"You know what to do." Sandfire said. The man came up to Mario, unable to look him in the eye. Mario eyed him cautiously, unsure of what he was going to do.

"I'm terribly sorry about this, but surely you must understand." The short man seemed to keep rubbing his arm. "The Zox have promised that if I do this, they'll free my planet." He then looked at Mario, and he could see in his eyes that this man was quite troubled. Just then, his arms swung at Mario. Mario was about to back off, but he had already grabbed Mario by the head. He wasn't applying much pressure, but for some reason Mario couldn't move, and everything was going dark.

"Link, are you there?" Link reached into his pocket and took out the radio.

"I'm here Slippy, what is it?"

"We've got the 64 all ready to go. We're on our way there."

"Good, see you then."

"Are you sure heading off to find Mario is a good idea?" Samus questioned. "The chances of us actually finding him are slim you know."

"I know, but just sitting here won't bring any results." Everyone but the Starfox team was now gathered at Peach's castle, and once they came, the warriors of dimension N would once again be together.

"All right, as soon as they get here, we'll need to…." As Link was planning their next move, they sky darkened.

"This again? What's happening now?" D.K. said. They looked all around, prepared for whatever might come. A portal then appeared right over the hole, and to everyone's surprise, Mario fell right out of it. The portal closed, and Mario laid face flat in the dirt. Everyone raced to Mario's side and lifted him, excited to see him back.

"Mario! Are you okay?"

"What happened?"

"Where were you?" Everyone was asking questions all at once, and Mario seemed to be quite confused.

"What? What are you all doing here? What are you talking about?" Mario seemed to be dazed.

"What do you mean? You got sucked into a portal and told us the Zox were back!"

"Zox? What's a Zox?" Everyone was stunned. Mario didn't remember the Zox.

"Mario, what's the last thing you remember?"

"I was sitting out here having a picnic with Peach. Say, where is she? And where did this hole come from?" Everyone's jaw dropped. It looked like the Zox had captured Mario to steal his memory. They had taken everything up to the point just before the whole war started. For some reason though, they still had Peach and Luigi.

Mario looked like he had been through a lot, so they took him out of the hole and let him sit. Since Mario was clueless, they filled him in on what had happened, and it seemed hard for him to take all of it in, but he seemed to get a hold of everything after a while.

The Starfox team later arrived with the 64, and they had to re-introduce him to it. While Sonic showed him around though, the others talked among themselves.

"It just doesn't make any sense." Link said, trying to figure things out. "Why would they kidnap him only to take his memory and send him back? There's got to be more to this."

"What if there's something on him? Like some sort of tracker, or a disease, or something. They send him back knowing we'd take him, only for something to end up getting us all." Zero said. Samus agreed to the idea.

"That's a possibility. I have a detailed scanner on my ship. We can check him out for any abnormalities." After they took Mario to Samus's ship to scan him, however, they came to a dead end.

"Nothing. There's absolutely nothing different with him." Samus said in defeat.

"What if he's a shape shifter or something?" Link asked in a whisper, since Mario was right next to them in the scanning chamber.

"No, he's not. If he was, his DNA would be unstable." Mario then stepped out, annoyed.

"Are you done with these tests? Come on, Peach and Luigi are still out there! We have to go rescue them!"

"I understand, Mario, but we have no idea where to look." Zero said. With Mario's determination to go look for them, Sonic started to feel inspired again about his previous idea.

"Hey, why not? Don't you think it's a good time to go with my plan now?" Sonic said, hoping for a positive answer.

"You mean the plan of rescuing dimensions from the Zox? That's quite an undertaking you know." Zero said.

"Come on! I thought that we were heroes? Isn't it our job to help those in need?"

"Yeah! I'm for it!" Ash said enthusiastically.

"Pika pi pi chu!" Pikachu seemed to share Ash's excitement, but Zero continued to question the move.

"It could be a long journey. Who knows how many dimensions the Zox have control over?"

"You know, if we rescue people from the Zox, I'm sure we could find even more people who could help." Link was now beginning to think it was a good idea.

"We'll be fighting against even more Zox, not just the ones that came to invade our dimension."

"True, but we'd be fighting them one dimension after another." Samus pointed out. "All right, let's see here. Who's in favor then of heading out?" Everyone then raised their hands but Zero. After a few seconds of thought, Zero submitted to the will of the people and raised his hand.

"Hey, how about I come too?" Marina asked.

"What? You're not serious, are you?"

"Oh, come on professor, you heard what they said, there's people in need! It's not like we have any other plans." Theo then grumbled.

"Eh, fine then."

"Well, I suppose you could help, but what can you do?" Link asked.

"I may be human now, but I still have the strength of a cybot!

"'Course then there's the armor." Theo added.

"Armor?"

"Yes, I recently finished making it for you. It's an armor that will give you the same abilities as before. I made it incase there was some reason you would need to fight again."

"Oh, thanks professor!" Mario was then getting anxious.

"What are we waiting for then? Let's go!"

Everyone then gathered into the ship. Professor Theo decided to come along on the 64 and leave their house at the castle, while Samus and Starfox, except for Slippy who went on the 64, followed in their own ships. While everyone took their seats, Link realized that Mario was the pilot, and his memory of doing so was gone.

"Um, Mario? You sit over there." Link said, pointing to the seat in front with the steering controls.

"What? You want me to fly this thing?"

"Well, yes. You were the one who was doing it, and you did a good job at it." Fox, who was listening through the communication link, talked to them from the main screen.

"You're the man for the job. I mean, it's a lot different from the Arwing, and I had trouble just getting it here."

"Well, I guess I'll try." Mario was reluctant, but he sat down, and placed his hands on the controls. He began fidgeting with the controls, and something started to come to him.

"Wait a minute…I know this."

"Are you remembering something, Mario?"

"Yeah, I press this button here and…" As Mario pressed the button, a faint hum was heard, and the ship began to hover over the ground. Mario grabbed the controls, and ship steadily lifted up.

"Hey, I'm doing it!" Mario was excited that he was able to pilot it, but his confidence was getting too high. As they floated upwards, the ship began to drift to the right.

"Mario, look out, the castle!" Mario quickly tried to compensate, but the ship drifted right into the castle, and took a chunk off of the top spire.

"Oh, man, Peach is gonna kill me."

"Just…take it slow." Getting the hang of it, they eventually made it to outer space. Once they were out of Nintendo's gravitational pull, he stopped the ship, and looked at Ash.

Ash was in control of the dimensional drive, and as he brought up the screen for the alternate dimensions, he gasped at the amount. There on his screen were countless circles laid out. Some had letters on them, others had numbers, while some didn't have any writing on them at all.

"Man, where do we start?"

"I guess we might as well start at the beginning." Zero said.

"Okay, I guess we'll go with dimension A then."

"No!" Mario shouted. Everyone then looked at him, surprised at his outburst. Mario then appeared to be embarrassed.

"I mean, go to S."

"Huh? Why?"

"Uh…it's just a hunch."

"Well, okay then." Ash clicked on dimension S, and a map of the dimension was displayed. Clicking on a point in space near a planet, a hole in the dimensions opened up.

"So then, it's begun." Sonic said, somewhat nervous at what they might find.

"Yep. Let's do this." D.K. said, equally nervous. Mario took them in, smiling. All was going according to plan.

Inside the cell, Mario came to.

"Oh man, what happened this time." Mario asked.

"It's weird. When that guy grabbed your head, his body started changing. He became you!" Luigi said.

"Me?"

"Yeah, he looked just like you." Peach said. "After that, Sandfire took him back. Sandfire said earlier about defeating us from the inside-out. I'm afraid of what they might do with that copy."

"Do you think that they captured us to switch me with him? But the others wouldn't fall for a trick like that, would they?"

A/N: If you don't recognize them, Marina and Theo are from the 64 game Mischief Makers.